Another Starlit Night
by Lainey
Summary: Sequel to "One Starlit Night" by me. Tai gets jealous of Matt and Teia. What next?


A/N: This is a sequel to One Starlit Night by me, and takes place about two weeks later. I wrote it because Annie-May asked me to, so, if it's a bad sequel, blame it on her. (Just kidding.)  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, but I do own Teia.  
  
  
  
Another Starlit Night  
  
Matt leaned over the dirt path, staring intently. He shook his head, getting confused. He had tracked Teia until now, where her trail had gotten muddled. He had gone the way he thought she went, but it was a dead end at an oak tree.   
  
"I know where she is, Matt!" called a familiar voice from overhead.  
  
The blond-haired boy straightened and looked up. His younger brother's digimon sat on a branch. "No, Patamon. I won't cheat. I know I can do this."  
  
"Okay," Patamon said. "Well the others are starting the food, so you better hurry up. Call me if you need me." He flew away through the trees.  
  
The trees... Matt ran down the path towards the dead end. He stopped a few feet away from the tree and looked up. A blond-haired girl stared down at him from fifty feet up. She burst out laughing.  
  
"It took you long enough!" she called down, swinging her legs.  
  
"Is there a point to this?" he asked, shading his eyes against the sun.  
  
"Of course," she replied, grinning. She turned to climb down, and caught him cringe as her foot slipped a little. "What's wrong? Afraid of heights?" She stepped off a branch, hanging by her hands. She kicked her legs in the air, and he cringed again.  
  
"Oh, come on," she said, regaining her footing. She resumed the climb downward.  
  
"I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of my girlfriend falling from them and killing herself," he said.  
  
"Well, gee, wouldn't you catch her?" She grinned again, and dropped the last few feet. She walked over and put her arms around him.  
  
"Fifty feet is still a long way to fall," he replied, wrapping his arms around her back.  
  
"Anyways," she said, pulling away and walking towards camp. He followed at her side. "There was a point."  
  
"So what was it?" he asked. Yet another piece of information to file away if he was to have any hope of being able to track like her. She'd been training him for awhile, but he doubted he'd ever get better than she was. She'd been doing it for seventeen years, after all.  
  
"No one ever looks up for their prey," she said, taking his hand in hers.  
  
"What deer is going to run up a tree?" he joked.  
  
"Who says you're hunting deer?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Bad time for a joke." He sighed.  
  
They walked in silence for awhile. Teia sniffed the air. "Oh, I smell food."  
  
Matt laughed. "Yeah, Patamon said they were starting."  
  
"Well why didn't you give up? Steak is much more important than teaching you to track me up a tree." She hit him playfully on the shoulder, with look on her face that for all the world said she was serious.  
  
He shook his head. "You are weird sometimes."  
  
She grinned. "I know. I try." He shook his head again in response, causing her to laugh. He kissed her quickly, and put his arm around her shoulders as they continued to walk.  
  
***  
  
Tai snorted in disgust. Matt and Teia walked into the clearing, all over each other, as usual. Okay maybe not quite, but he'd had to watch it for the past two weeks, and it was getting annoying.  
  
You're just jealous, a voice somewhere inside him said.  
  
Okay, fine, he admitted. He'd been a little upset two weeks ago when he had stumbled over the two asleep on a bluff overlooking the ocean. They were wrapped in each other's arms amid a large patch of flattened grass. Both came awake, as he turned to leave, heartbroken. He'd been madly in love with the girl for nearly a month, and had planned to tell her soon. He was too late, though, and it hurt him every time they touched each other.  
  
"You all right, Tai?"  
  
A voice broke him out of his thoughts. Her voice.  
  
"Hm?" he looked up as she sat on a rock next to him. "Yeah, fine."  
  
"Okay," she replied, obviously not convinced. She turned away anyways, to stare hungrily at the barbecue pit. Steam rose off the cooking steak as TK tended it.  
  
"Almost done," the blond-haired boy announced.  
  
"Well, hurry up, bro!" Matt called, leaning down to wash his hands in the creek. He stood, walked over and sat by Teia, putting an arm around her. Tai looked away.  
  
A group of nine people and thirteen digimon came into the clearing from the beach path. Yolei was furiously trying to comb sand out of her hair.  
  
Teia tried unsuccessfully not to laugh at the sight. "What happened, Yolei?"  
  
The purple-haired girl looked up. "Davis-," she glanced angrily his way, "was trying to show off for Kari." The boy blushed profusely. "He was building a sand castle and one of his buckets of sand missed the pile." She thwaped him over the head.  
  
"Look, Yolei, I said I'm really sorry," Davis said, holding his head. He added in a low voice, "Besides, I wasn't showing off." Yolei growled and hit him again.  
  
No one bothered to tell Davis is was pointless to show off for Kari. She'd been with TK for a month, but he still went at it.  
  
"Steak's done!" TK announced, and immediately regretted it. He was overcome with a tide of hungry children and digimon.   
  
***  
  
Later that night, Tai sat alone by the campfire. He was fairly sure that everyone else was asleep; it had been an hour since they went to bed. Except Teia of course. The whole group knew about her insomnia, but as long as she was pretending to sleep, Tai wouldn't interfere. He watched as she lay, shifting now and then.  
  
He sighed and shifted his gaze back to the flickering flames. It was a bad idea, though, because her image haunted him there, too. Teia and Matt laughing with their arms around each other. Teia and Matt going off alone to go 'swimming,' and then his mind's interpretation of what that meant. Teia and Matt lying in each other's arms after that first night together, when Tai had stumbled across them. It had hurt more than the others because it had been such a surprise.  
  
"Tai."  
  
Once again she caught him deep in thought. She had spoken very softly, but the night was silent, and of course he heard her. He looked over at her, and she was sitting upright.  
  
"Yes?" he asked.  
  
"I can't sleep," she stated quietly, hands in her lap.  
  
"You're never asleep at this time." He looked at her evenly. She obviously wanted something, since her being awake was no amazing feat.  
  
She noticed and got straight to the point. "I think I'll go for a walk. You want to come?" She stood.  
  
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" He stood, and walked to her. They headed for the path along the creek, walking by the light of a half-full moon.   
  
She took his arm in hers. "So, how come you've been sittin' up by the fire for an hour?"  
  
"Just thinking," he replied, keeping his eyes on the path even though he knew she was looking at him.  
  
"Oh. Something bugging you?" she asked. Suddenly her hanging on his arm like that was bugging him. It wasn't like she was flirting with him; she had always been a touchy person, and Matt didn't seem to mind when she did it with other people. Tai just couldn't stand being this close to her and knowing he couldn't really have her.  
  
"No. Nothing."  
  
"Riiiiight," she replied immediately, sarcastic tone standing out.  
  
Damn. He hated it how she could read people so easily. Especially him.   
  
"Let's not talk about it, okay?"  
  
She sighed. "Whatever. But you know it'll make you feel better."  
  
Why did chics always say that? Telling her that he was immensely jealous of her and Matt would in no way make him feel better.  
  
They came to a large, flat rock, overlooking a large pool of water. She walked out on it, and sat on the edge, legs dangling above the water. He sat next to her, and they looked at the moonlight dancing on the water for awhile.  
  
"Tai, you never talk to me anymore," she whispered.  
  
He didn't know how to answer, so he didn't. Apparently she didn't expect him to, because she kept talking. "You can hardly bear to look at me anymore. It's like you're avoiding me."  
  
He saw from the corner of his eye that she turned to look at him. She was right. He couldn't seem to pull his eyes off the water to look at her.  
  
"Tai, please." He shook his head. He couldn't. "Tai."  
  
Something in her voice made him turn his head to her. She was staring at him so intensely it hurt. He could see pain in her face, and her it in her pleading tone. He cringed to think his not being able to be near her was the cause.  
  
"Tai, I thought you were one of my best friends," she said, placing her hand on his.  
  
He shook his head again. "Teia, I just can't be around you," he whispered, his own face showing pain.  
  
"It's Matt," she stated, all emotion leaving her face and voice. She sighed in frustration. "Why didn't you tell me?" Her ice-blue eyes bore into his brown ones. She shook her head slowly. "No, of course you couldn't tell me." Her eyes dropped to the rock between them. "No, what were you supposed to say? 'Teia, I'm in love with you, and I don't want you to be with Matt'? No, dumb question."  
  
He couldn't argue with that, so he didn't bother trying. "Teia, that morning, when I found you guys, it broke my heart." His eyes dropped down, too, in case she looked up. "And now," he said in barely a whisper, "it hurts just as much seeing you two all over each other. I told you I loved you all the time. You just didn't know how I meant it."  
  
They had become such close friends right away, and told each other they loved each other all the time. They didn't freak out at the L-word because they both knew how they mean it-or thought they did.  
  
"Tai, I love you, too. I had no idea my happiness came at the price of yours. I didn't-I didn't know I was hurting you." Both looked up at each other as a tear slid down her face. He just stared at her as a matching one fell from his eye.  
  
"I don't know what to do," she confessed.  
  
"What do you mean, do? What is there to do?" He wiped her tear away and she his.  
  
"I don't know!" she cried. "I care about you. You're my best friend. I can't just go on hurting you. But I love Matt. I can't leave him."  
  
"I don't want you to leave Matt. He makes you happy and that's what I want. I'd rather hurt for awhile until I find someone new than have both of you broken up and unhappy and throwing away what you have. I'd never forgive myself if I let you guys break up because of me. You're in love, and you're not giving it up for me. I won't let you." He scooted closer and put his arms around her and she sobbed into his shoulder.  
  
"Damn you, Tai," she said, voice muffled because she spoke into his shoulder. "I don't deserve you."  
  
"Of course you do. If you were unworthy, do you think two guys would both be madly in love with you?" It was Matt, standing a few feet away, looking at them.  
  
Teia smiled up at him. "Hi Matt."  
  
He ignored her greeting and looked squarely at Tai. "I don't know if I deserve a friend like you, though. I woke up, and you were both gone. It was the middle of the night, just like a few weeks ago..." his voice trailed off. He turned so he didn't have to look at their faces, and sniffed. "And I thought..."  
  
The implied thought set in with Tai and Teia. Neither could find any words to say.  
  
Matt sniffed again and wiped away tears that stubbornly refused to stay hidden. "I don't know what I was thinking. I know neither of you would ever..."  
  
"Cheat on you?" Teia asked, finishing the sentence. She stood.  
  
He shook his head, looking at the ground, to confirm what she said.  
  
"Matt, I-," she said, torn between anger that the thought would even cross his mind and love to assure him that he was wrong. She couldn't decide, so she just stood there, staring at him with her mouth open.  
  
"I'm obviously not helping things," Tai said, standing and walking back onto the path. "I hope you guys work it out. And Matt, I want you to know I would never, ever sneak with a girl behind your back, especially your girl." Matt nodded, as Tai turned and walked back to camp.  
  
Matt turned to look at her. "Teia, I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am." He lifted his hands and dropped them in a motion of helplessness.  
  
She walked to him and took his hands in hers. "Matt, I know you're sorry. It scared you that I wasn't with you and your mind jumped to conclusions."  
  
He shook his head. "I don't want you to write it of like that. My very best friend and my girlfriend are missing and I automatically assume they're off cheating on me. That's not natural."  
  
"Matt, I don't blame you. Don't blame yourself. So you're a little possessive and you lost control of it for a minute. I love you, and I know you could never believe otherwise. I know you wouldn't ever really think I was cheating on you."  
  
He stared at her. It was the first time she'd ever said she loved him. Well, to his face. He had heard her tell Tai. He smiled, thinking about it.  
  
"I love you, too."  
  
"I know. What do you say we go back to camp?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
***  
  
A few minutes later they walked into camp, arm-in-arm. Sora was awake, sitting up.  
  
"I don't think Tai will be too heartbroken about it anymore," Sora said, playing with the hair of the boy sleeping with his head in her lap. It was Tai. "He came back a couple of minutes ago, and I woke up. I asked what was wrong, and I ended up telling him that I was in love with him. He took it pretty well, I say." She was still fingering a strand of his hair.  
  
"Yeah," Teia agreed. "I guess it turned out to be a pretty good night for everyone."  
  
  
  
  
The End  
  
  
  
  
A/N: No, no more chapters. This wasn't exactly a second chapter anyways, but that's not the point. Hope you liked it. R/R!!  



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